On some machines installing the 1.01 patch for Homeworld Cataclysm seems to fail. Usually this is in the form of a freeze or a crash while installing. Without this patch one of the many errors you may encounter on newer machines will be:

"Unable to open file: Cataclysm.big"

To get around the freeze/crash while patching follow the steps below:

Download the Homeworld Cataclysm 1.01 patch. Make sure you download the patch specific to the region where you bought the game. Keep in mind after patching you will not be able to load saves made before the patch!
+ Download link 1 <– Softpedia (US version)
+ Download link 2 <– Shacknews (US version)
+ Download link 3 <– local mirror of extracted patch files (skip steps 2-5)+ Download link 4 <– Assam Kiiith’sid Storehouse (All regions) NOTE: the /x command line option has been found to not work with this specific patch version. Do not use it.

Create a shortcut to the patch .exe. On most versions of Windows this can be done by right clicking the patch .exe file and then clicking Create shortcut.

Add the /x command line switch to the patch shortcut. Right click on the newly created shortcut and select properties. In the target field add a space and then the following command line option:/x
e.g. C:\Users\<YOU>\Desktop\HWCPatchV101_USA.EXE /x

Enable run as administrator. While still in the shortcut properties select the compatibility tab and select Run this program as administrator. This setting is needed for the /x paramter to work.

Run the patch from the custom shortcut you created. Double click the patch shortcut you created to run the patch with the /x command line option you supplied. This should change the patch installation prompt to ask you where to extract the files contained within the patch. The prompt will look something like this:

Copy all the extracted patch files into your Homeworld Cataclysm directory. Once you’ve selected all the files to be extracted, go to where you extracted them and move them into your Homeworld Cataclysm installation directory, overwriting any files that may have already been there. Once this is done try running the game again!

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues with the Homeworld Cataclysm 1.01 patch installation crash, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!

Thanks for these instructions. Unfortunately on Windows 7, they don’t seem to work. Forcing the patch to provide file extraction options with /x works, but nothing actually happens when you hit the “OK” button for the thing to extract the files. It just sits there. So unless some nice person somewhere would care to upload a rar or zip of the extracted files, this patch is still a dud.

The method described here does not work ONLY IF you attempt it with the US patch taken from the “All Regions” patch bundle on the “Assam Kiiith’sid Storehouse” website. (Download link 1 on the origin page that leads to this article).

Grab the Softpedia link instead, the manual extraction method works just fine for *that* executable, for some reason.

Tried the patcher for US using compatibility for Win98, also tried the shortcut option with /x neither worked.
*Compatibility W/Win98 just crashed.
*Using /x option brought up patcher files but clicking ok didn’t do anything. It didn’t ask where to save files either.
Patcher file was saved to c:/Sierra.
Anyone has the US patcher unpacked files?

I think I know what you did wrong. When the prompt comes up with the patches files you have to manually select all the files you wish to extract (tedious I know). If you don’t select anything and then hit OK it just closes the patcher. I also extracted all the patch files and uploaded them here just for you :) See download link 3 in step 1 above. Let me know if that works for you!

To fix flicker on Win 7 Pro using nVidia card here is the command on the game shortcut I used that works for me AFTER installing the patch:
C:\Sierra\Cataclysm\cataclysm.exe -noFastFE -triple -disableAVI

Wow thanks for testing that out, I will definitely add your solution to one of these posts! Out of curiosity what video card are you using? Also does the flickering issue happen only on the menu screen, or does it happen in game as well?

LoneTiger

June 13, 2014 at 10:31 pm

Using GeForce GTX 770.
The flicker happened on main menu and game manu’s during game but some flicker in game.
After using flags above flicker on menu happens still but is very very little and none in game.